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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

I've thrown around every major distro out there and I always come back to suse. If you want a desktop linux OS, SUSE 9.1 is absolutely beautiful. Now that I have a better understanding of configuring a few services, the server side is wonderful using YAST either in text over SSH, or local using the GUI. I think Novell will take them far beyond Redhat.

I initially threw distro after distro at my laptop, an hp ze4430us, to ee which worked the best and would recognize my pcmcia modem. I tried Mandrake10, nice but no dice, Fedora core1, would not boot, core2, worked but could not resolve irq problem for pcmcia, later found to be a problem with kernel support of pcmcia, and then SuSE 8.2 and 9.0, both of which worked fine and with a few tweaks would work with my modem. So finally, i hooked up to cable internet, booted SuSE 9.0, and it ran like molasses. I had already gotten the disks for 9.1, installed it, and was on the net without a hitch or even a reboot.
Installation with Yast was smooth, easier than xp pro, the new look is beautiful under kde 3.2, the modem is no longer an issue, don't need it. Yast actually recognized my laptop model and autoconfigured itself. All I needed to change was the filesystem type, as I have drivers installed to allow xp to read from ext3 filesystem. All in all, I'm very happy with this distro and this version. I haven't had a halt yet, all is super smooth, and I am no longer shopping for a new distro. I did upgrade to a different browser, firefox 0.9, and installed some rpms to enable wmv and dvd's to play. I would recommend this to anyone, and specifically to all with my model of laptop as long as kernel pcmcia is not an issue for you. If it is, stick to the 2.4 kernel and use the external module. Any questions can be addressed to cyberdwarf<at>aimcomm.net. And I got all my linux from linuxcd.org. I never shop anywhere else.

I am very happy with the product, I was a big red hat user for a long time but after 9 when they went all coporate i just stuck with it. I was then shopping for a new disro, i tired red hat desktop 3 didn't because nothing seemed updated since redhat 9. I tried mandrake but i just didn't care for. The last one the list was suse, i borrowed it from a friend, had a problem with the boot loader but fixed it. Besides that no problems and i love it. I have now had my work pay for it and i know talking to customers about linux and try to convert them too it. So far people are very pleased with what they have seen and i know why because suse it so good. Oh yeah by the way, i am a computer tech for a computer repair biz. I would recomend it to anyone who wants a good disro that it worth every penny and very up to date and up with the times.

As a refugee from Red Hat, after they went commercial + Fedora, I have been impressed by Suse's 9.1's easy install and hardware support, especially the build-in Nvidia support, which puts it heads-and-shoulders above Red Hat's non-existant support for Nvidia.... Given how dominant Nvidia has become, its a real lapse by Red Hat to not natively support it. Anyway, Suse's Yast is as easy to use as Red Hat's Up2date, and thus I have a home-user-friendly installation of Suse Linux that is beautifully done, works great, and is a snap to keep current... I highly recommend Suse, and with its recent acquisition by Novell, there's a comfort level regarding a company (Novell) that we have known and dealt with for years.

Easy install, its best to seperate your swap and boot into 2 different partions, alittle tricky, and also YaSt and SaX2, very good, i used SaX2 to figure out which video cards are supported and which arn't

Cons:

some programs have problems finding certain things like ssl, gtk(weird i know) and other stuff, so if you use this distro mainly for personal use it doesn;t matter but i had to reinstall some things with downloads, and not off the cds

This distro is great, i love it, it does have some down falls, like if your a java developer and need the latest jdk and take what came on suse off, mozilla and some other programs take for ever to load cause java isn;t int he same place, suse puts it in a different place then normal, so the programs that use java you have to uninstallt hema nd reinstall from the file and not off the cd, it also take less time to install suse if you have the dvd install, its just one cd, double sided, one with 32 bit and the other with 64 bit cps's, over all this is a great distro for someone who hardly knows anything about linux, i learned quickly, i would say its one of the best, and most user friendly, for every day semi dev work.

(My price is 75 EUR not USD -- but I suppose most of these boards forget anywhere on this planet actually exists outside the USA) !!

I'm Not a gamer -- I use computers in my business (photography) and need a stable low cost networking system. I haven't got time to resource and compile a lot of stuff so the distro must essentally work out of the box which it did.

Other distros might be more "Fun" or "Real Linux" but this is a properly crafted professional system which can easily replace Windows for most applications including Microsoft Office .

Yes Open Office is that good now so that users coming from Microsoft Office won't have any problems using the Word processing, Spreadsheet or Presentation (Power Point) apps.

MySQL included with the professional product is a well known and stable Database system and is quite easy to set up.

The install is easy enough -- one quirk is that it re-boots half way through so ensure when you see the boot message during this reboot choose BOOT FROM HARD DISK.

The pro version comes with 2 DVD's and 5 CD's so boot from the DVD's or you'll be swapping CD's like crazy.

The "Standard" software selection is fine --but if you are running a Network shared with one or more Windows machines add SAMBA as well.

I added KBEAR a WS_FTP graphical like FTP program -- our photographers need an easy way of uploading their pics to our server. It's a very to use graphical FTP program.

In addition I selected 2 additional web browsers - FIREFOX (MOZILLA) and GALEON as there are still minor quirks in KONQ.

If you have the Personal edition then you'll have to get these (freely available) from the Web.

Scanning software (KOOKA - OCR and SANE) also selected as well as THE GIMP version 2 -- a very capable image processing program somewhat similar to Photoshop and what's even better it's 600 USD cheaper (Free of course).

Everything installed OK.

As our machines are equipped with Nvidia cards the YOU (ONLINE UPDATE) was done --saves messing about with the Kernel and problems with configuring X later.

After installation there were only minor problems.

DVD playing is still a pain due to greedy US Lawyers and totally stupid licensing regulations

If Windows machines can come equipped with DVD playing software why can't Linux one's. However the LIBDVDCSS and full version of XINE with the libraries and WIN32 CODECS are available all over the web.

Wireless Networking still needs some work however I used the Linuxant drivers which worked straight out of the box. These are available for a 30 day free trial if you want to play with them but for me the 19 USD cost is worth it. The license alllows you to install on other distros or releases so if you decide to install another distro you don't need to buy another licence from Linuxant.

These work by using the Windows drivers with some type of wrap around.
If you are a developer you might be able to do this yourself with the NDIS system but I haven't got the time or knowledge so in this case this was 19 USD well spent. 2 Minutes install and my wireless card was working.

The KDE menu for other than root needed a line menusize=15 instead of menusize=48 to be fixed in a hidden file kikerrc as the original space between the menu items from the main menu was much too large.

(Actual file is ~/.kde/share/config/kikerrc where ~ is
/home/user-id)

Scanning needed a change to the script DESKTOP in the usb library to enable users other than ROOT to be able to use usb scanners.

This is due to the way permissions are handled in the HOTPLUG system in the new kernel. I've posted how to do this elsewhere on this forum.

Desktops with Disks that run of SATA / other controllers rather than off the IDE controller on the motherboard were recognized without any problem. -

Windows installation required you to load the drivers -- and then it only allowed you to load off a floppy -- hard if your machine doesn't have one !!

One up to SUSE here.

Network browsing is a breeze now as there is an integrated LAN browser -- no need for Linneighborhood any more, FSTAB entries or SMBMOUNTS when browsing Windows machines on your network.

In anycase there is still an unresolved problem with MOUNTS when using LINNEIGHBORHOOD so you can forget looking for a fix to this --not required.

The only negative thing about this distro is that the behaviour of Konqueror is a littlebit quirky at times -- especially when using Forums. Probably due to the way java script might be implemented.

The most serious problem is that when you are typing data into an input area or form the cursor will suddenly and inexplicably jump to some random area on the screen and continue from there so unless you are looking you can garble up your text. It doesn't happen too often but it's still there -- so I recommend using Mozilla-Firefox or Galeon when using Forums -- otherwise KONQUEROR is fine for everything else.

Our photographers use a lot of CF ( Compact Flash cards) -- These all worked using either PCMCIA cards (on laptops) or card readers -- software worked also straight out of the box. These cards all behaved like disk drives ( /dev/hde, /dev/hdf or whatever on your system).

Apart from the normal DVD +R(W) and DVD-R(W) writing system we use DVD-RAM for long term archives and these all worked.

The DVD-RAM media just works like an ordinary file system -- read/write as FAT32 or EXT2/3. I'm not sure how to format them as Reserfs --but I'm sure someone will post -- however these disks are also used on Windows machine so the FAT32 system will be fine.
You don't need any special program for using DVD-RAM disks. Just mount the file system and you are away.

For a professional stable Desktop replacement for Windows this Distro is absolutely 100% OK. I've given it 10 because IMO it deserves more than a 9 and the Konqueror problem won't really be encountered by your typical Office User.

For 75 EUR this is WELL worth the money for a small network.

I can't imagine what the costs are for Licenses and maintenance for MS Enterprise server 2003, Windows XP and Microsoft office 2003 for a small network of around 6 computers as well as finding someone to maintain this stuff.

Also there's no activation BS either.

Building on from SUSE 9.0 this is a distro well worth installing --especially if you are using your machines for business rather than if you are just a hobbyist or a developer.

I haven't tried the built in modem but we never use them so I don't care.

It's a horrible Winmodem so it probably won't work anyway -- but if I need a modem I'll use a proper Hayes compatable external modem (USR or equivalent product).

The only piece of software I feel is missing is a DRIVE IMAGING program like DRIVEIMAGE 2002 or Norton Ghost so you can dump and restore your system from a bootable DVD if you need to recover.
CPIO is not really a suitable tool for this purpose.

We still use 'DOZE for this task - each system is dumped on a different night -- we are looking at a slightly more elegant solution --maybe a tape drive attached to a server.

To sum up :

Red hat is going too much in the Microsoft Corporate direction and isn't really interested in small independent users any more.

You can't also rely on running your business developed on a system largely run by people testing new stuff and developing in their spare time (Fedora).

Mandrake has excellent ideas but is certainly not ready for the big time just yet. It's financial future is still somewhat questionable.

SUSE with the pedigree of NOVELL behind them is an unbeatable combination --and for private users you can see the change already -- SUSE now make an ISO of the personal edition available for FREE download.

So finally --

Highly Recommended and you can save a bucket load of Dosh compared to using Windows Corporate stuff.

If you are a developer or a hobbyist you'll probably miss some of the development tools. The personal edition doesn't have them but again you can download them freely from several decent mirrors.

These tools are however all included in the PRO version but for business people like me who have a small network or one or 2 stand alone machines such as a laptop and a desktop and essentially want the stuff to run straight out of the box and do exactly as it says on the tin this distro is the one for you by FAR.

I think I must like the SuSE distribution - I've had ever single one since 1998.

Where the SuSE distributions win hands down for me is with the YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool). There is hardly an aspect of system configuration that can't be performed through this easy-to-use interface.

I find 9.1 significantly faster than 9.0 and have decided that it was well-worth the upgrade and having my DSL connection running slow for a whole day whilst I donwloaded it.

One thing about the later distributions that I don't like is the fact that they are quite resource-hungry; there is no "SuSE Lite" version for putting on old machines pressed into service as routers, etc. This does mean that I have to use other distributions as well.

Hardware detection under 9.1 really is very good. We have come a long way in a short time with this. It wasn't that long ago that I used to struggle to get X servers working. Now you just install and there's most of your hardware sitting there ready to be used.

One of the real big plusses of SuSE is the fact that it is available for different processor architectures. This means that when I finally build my new AMD64 machine, I can stay with a distribution with which I am very familiar.

Not enough packages (smbclient but not server), apt packages need more maintaining

I've been trying to switch to Linux for years, but somehow I never could get things to work, not completely. Mandrake and Fedora Core 1 ALMOST worked...but not entirely. The distro that made me switch for good is Suse 9.1

The good thing about this distro is that as soon as I had installed it, 95% of everything was already there, and worked. I could surf, play music, get mail, chat with Kopete...everything.
Of course, while I could browse my wife's Win2K box, she couldn't do the same with me. Bit of searching taught me that although smbclient was installed, the actual samba package wasn't. I understand this is only true for Personal, and that teh Pro edition doesn't have this flaw.
Still, I downloaded an entire OS so I wasn't about to complain. I installed apt, and then samba...and after a few hiccups (which were more my fault than the distro's), the home network was like it had been. Printer sharing worked too. After that, I downloaded Firefox, Thunderbird and Apollon, and I now had a desktop I felt comfortable with.

There are a few cons though. The first time I installed it my windows partition became unbootable. This is a well-documented linux 2.6 kernel bug, but in my case, I couldn't fix it. I would have lost everything if I hadn't backed-up everything.
Furthermore, the list of packages with Personal is a bit thin. No Thunderbird, no giFT/Apollon, and worst of all, no gaim. This wouldn't be such a problem if the packages at the suse-apt servers were up to date, but they aren't. Just to name a few examples, the Firefox rpm has been suffering from a size mismatch, aspell doesn't want to install because it needs an earlier version (which makes installing gaim with apt impossible), and de package kdenetwork-InstantMessenger (kopete) just crashes when you try to run it. Some more work should have gone into that, I feel.

Still, a great OS at a very low cost (I'm pretty sure I'll buy the Professional anyway), and the one that finally made the switch possible for me. I'd recommend this to anyone.
San

I originally started using linux about a year ago, first Fedora Core, then Mandrake, and so on. Nothing really worked all that well on my old computer (HP Pavilion xt938). So I bit the bullet and bought a copy of Suse Pro 9.0, it installed easily and detected everything.

I recently purchased an AMD 64 computer built by Vision, and after several failed attempts at other distros I did a net install of the SUSE 9.1 AMD 64 bit version. And what I got was another flawless installation. Everything was detected, even my Logitech gaming mouse.

Easy installation, good graphical configuration utilties, and easy to administer.

Cons:

I get the feeling that I, as a user and administrator, am being removed from the actual operation of the system. I couldn't even find the network config. files from the command line so I had to do all my administration through the YaST GUI in X Windows. N

After Red Hat 9.0 became Fedora, I tried almost every distro that I could get my hands on. After various mixed results I finally got Suse Professional 9.1. The installation was incredibly easy, and the overall system configuration through YaST2 (so far) makes administration a breeze. Comprehensive enough to run everything I needed out of the box, Suse 9.1 also had enough control to let me fine-tune the system the way I like it (lean and mean.)

I would definitely recommend Suse 9.1 Pro to anyone seriously considering the switch to Linux, or to those who are looking for a distro like Red Hat used to be.

As distros go, suse is good, if you happen to have a set of hardware that suse likes and automaticly protects but if you dont, and if the driver needs to take a ganders at the source code, all that nice interface is worthless if you cannot get thing to run on it. i mean wtf.

Moving on from that short but personally satisfting rant, the install is exellent. Suse automaticly sets its own FAT pertitions and will resize any other peartitions (inc NTFS) to make sure it fits. However the install also offers the more advanced, and probebly more brave to adjust the size of the partitions themselfs.

Logon is quicker than XP and about linux standerd in ternm of speed. The persoal version has kde so it looks different, and its rather fast.

One biig negative is the YAST control center as (this is down to a personal preferance) i found it slow and bggy. AND IT DIDNT WANT TO INSTALL ANY OF MY PACKAGES, which pissed me off.

I truly enjoy this distro. I've tried many others and I find that SuSe is very easy to install on most computers, even laptops. It also installs very easily in a dual boot setup with Windoze, doing most of the work itself. I would highly recommend this distro to noobs or those of us that don't have hours to spend configuring and tweaking, let Yast do it for you. It usually gets it right :)
The only drawback is that you have to disable IPv6 in order to speed up internet access, but this isn't the distro, it's more related to the kernel.